Hello 2014

By Brian Ledford

January 2, 2014

2014 is finally here and I can not say that I am sad to see 2013 behind me. This past year has been a roller coaster for me but that is all in the past now. I know that every year people make New Years Resolutions and 99% of the time they fail. This year I decided to make no resolutions. Instead I decided to write down my goals for 2014, but I will get back to them in a sec.

I am also trying to take part in a writing challenge for 2014. Everyday for 365 days I must write for at least 5 minutes a day, no matter how big or small it is. I can choose to write either on my site or in a journal or however I choose. This is one of my goals for 2014. Told you I would get back to my goals.

So my list of goals will be changing all year. It will be growing. As I achieve a goal I will add another to this list and so on. For the year of 2014 my list so far is this:

Find a decent job and move out on my own.

Start painting/drawing again.

Continue to lose weight and take better care of myself.

Grow my website and work on HIV outreach both I locally and on a bigger scale.

Write everyday for at least 5 minutes even if I do not feel like it.

Be more open to the possibility of finding happiness/love.

Continue to gow as a person in all aspects of my life.

Now some of these goals are not things that will be reached over night and most likely I will be working on them all year, but I am up for it. I just hope I do not lose this motivation as the year moves forward.

We all start off the year by saying this year is going to be different and we usually do a good job for the first few months but then we slowly start to loose focus and motivation. This year I hope not to. I want help from my readers to keep me motivated on my goals. Anything in life worth having is worth working hard to get.

On a side note, I have my second ID appointment tomorrow at the VA since starting on Stribild back in the end of Sept. I hope this is the visit when they tell me that I am finally undetectable and that my CD4 count is continuing to improve. That would be some great news to start the New Year with. I will let y'all know how it goes tomorow, no matter if it is good, bad, or ugly. I think I am going to ask them to do a full STD check up so I know I am starting the year off right.

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This is my story of how I found out I was HIV-positive while still on Active Duty in the United States Marine Corps and how I have tried to put the pieces of my life back together through the good times and the bad. I am currently a full time student working on a degree in Information Security Technology, which seems to be taking forever. I want to help make a difference and erase HIV related Stigma in the South, where due to lack of education people still do not know that much about HIV. If my story reaches out and helps at least one person, then I have made a difference.

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